Budgeting old style!

tryingtocutback

I have decided to start budgeting properly in the new year.

I was wondering if any of you had any tips for (very basic) budgeting.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,
TTCB

HappyMJ

Very basic budgeting?

Get paid...pay the rent or mortgage, council tax, electricity, gas, water and all other essential bills and see what is left. Spend no more than that amount of money till next payday and attempt to keep some of it aside for future large expenses.

hilstep2000

Martin has a really good budgeting tool on here.

unimaginative_user_name

I agree with Happy.

I would also recommend you list your annual expenses like car/house insurance, car tax, Christmas, etc, estimate what these are going to cost based on this year's figures, divide the total by twelve and save that in an easy access savings account so the money's there when you need and you're not reaching for the credit card.

[Deleted User]

I agree pay all essential bills like heat light,mortgage /rent/telephone/t.v. licence etc then whats left divide into three one for food, one for savings against a rainy day, and one for 'happy cash' for when you want to treat yourself to something daft and totally frivolous,even if its only a squashy cream cake we all need daft things in our lives to brighten up our days.

maman

HappyMJ wrote: »

Very basic budgeting?

Get paid...pay the rent or mortgage, council tax, electricity, gas, water and all other essential bills and see what is left. Spend no more than that amount of money till next payday and attempt to keep some of it aside for future large expenses.

I'd agree with that but I'd say spend an absolute minimum of what's left after essentials (and do be sure they're needs not wants) and save it to give yourself a cushion.

zippychick

As this has dropped down the Old Style board, i've moved it to the budgeting board for you

Zip

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move discussions from the MoneySaving boards if they’re not related to MoneySaving to help everyone find the MoneySaving tips and discussion quicker (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to Discussion Time/The Arms. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Hominu

How I've done it in the past when I've been on a low wage:

Wait until payday, withdraw entire contents of account. Put money aside into different envelopes and place into safe. Spend as required. Guaranteed no overdraft charges, bank fees or debt. When the money is zero, you simply have nothing until next pay day. Several times at the beginning, I had to live on beans (or whatever else was left) for breakfast, dinner and tea. Sometimes I went 24 hours without any food at all (just water for drink). I think I learnt how to budget pretty quickly, and kept an 'emergency cash fund' (which was £10) from then on that I've never actually used.